A better future for a troubled world

Dark Optimism is the not-for-profit public interest research, activism
and writing of Shaun Chamberlin, author of The Transition Timeline, working with
a wide network of friends and partners around the world.

We are unashamedly positive about what kind of a world humanity
could create, and unashamedly
realistic about how far we are from creating it today.

The old standby argument of the so-called ‘peak oil sceptics’ was that if we really were facing geological limits to oil extraction rates then prices would be rising rapidly. Since prices were relatively stable there was clearly no impending problem. And anyway, if prices started rising (to, say, $70 a barrel) that would stimulate much increased exploration and production and bring prices back down again. So go back to sleep and don’t let the peak oil lunatics disturb your slumbers.

Now of course, prices are indeed rocketing ($138 a barrel today, a more-than-100% increase in the past year), so have they changed their tune? Read more »